Tanzania Rollin’ By

What a month it has been so far!

 I arrived to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania about a week and a half
ago. It only took us a 14 hour bus ride to get here! Only 2 of my other
teammates (Jordan and Charlotte) were able to make the journey with me due to 2
of our other teammates being very sick. The first week the 3 of us were here
was really hard. We were all exhausted- physically and emotionally, and because
we only had the 3 of us- all of the ministry for the week fell on us. It
doesn’t help that roosters starting cock-a-doodle-doodling right outside of our
window around 1:30 or 2 am and proceed through the night every few hours or
that the Muslim prayers and chants play over an extremely loud intercom every
few hours (including all through the night) or that the watchdog that lives
here at the home where we are staying howls every few hours (which sounds like
a person- it’s the weirdest noise ever!) or children are screaming and crying
starting around 5 or 6 am each morning or that the house cat meows and cries all
through the night (which is also the weirdest sound ever). Combine all of these
new noises together and it makes for several restless nights of no sleep- ha!

 We are staying with an amazing family. They actually lived
in the States for 8 years, so they can speak English (most people here can’t
speak English- only Swahili, so it creates some miscommunication at times!). It
is fun when we get to “live with the locals” and learn their way of life. Their
daughters are precious. Grace taught Charlotte and I how to make bread over a
charcoal fire- it was SO good! We have bucket showers again this month, AND
squatty potties- these are rather challenging to get used to! ha The town that
we are staying in is literally built on sand. It’s not exactly how I pictured Africa
to be, but it is beautiful. The town is really small, so most of our groceries
are bought at local vendors or markets. Let’s just say that I’ve given up
eating meat for the rest of our stay in Africa!

 

Fortunately, the rest of our team arrived this week (minus
one who was flown back to the States to receive further medical attention). We
are partnered with a pastor here and are working with his church, so we have
mainly been doing a lot of teaching and preaching (all through translators).
They have some type of service almost every night of the week, so that is what
the majority of our ministry has looked like so far. This week we started doing
some home visits of different members of the congregation- just to pray and
encourage them. Michelle, Charlotte, and I also went and visited a school- it
was the highlight of our day! We got to play games with the children, sing some
songs, and just talk to them. African children are so cute! We are hoping to go
back several times before leaving.

 

 

Please continue to pray for the health of our team. We are
all pretty worn out. I think it has to do with hitting month 7, but we want to
finish this race strong! Yours prayers and words or encouragement are
appreciated more than you know.